Why Endowment?

Why are we focused on building the endowment?

Simple. To take a line from the world of sports, for years Juniata has essentially competed outside its weight class, competing against schools with double our endowment. We've won recruiting battles, competitions for faculty, and the admiration of many. But anybody knows that underweight competitors can not stick it out for the long haul.

How does endowment help a college?

The endowment provides financial resiliency, by investing contributed capital and spending the income in ways that advance our mission. Such resiliency will become ever more critical in the coming years, as Juniata navigates through the changing environment in higher education.

Individuals make gifts to endowment in two ways - they either give to an existing endowment or establish their own.

• Outright gifts of cash, appreciated securities (stocks, bonds, and the like), planned gifts (through a will, or annuity, for example) or real estate holdings can be used to establish an endowment or to support an existing fund.

Individuals can choose to support or establish scholarships, professorships, or programs. Within those three broad categories, many options exist for those wishing to help Juniata, its faculty, and its students.

Juniata's overall endowment is constituted of money given by alumni, friends of the College, and parents of current and past students that is then invested.

• The sum of that money, or the principal, is placed in the College's investment portfolio and managed so that it continues to generate income, supporting future generations of students. The College only uses the interest the endowment principal earns, ensuring the principal will continue to work indefinitely.

The College's investment policies are structured to enable Juniata to satisfy donor goals and to generate sufficient interest over time to grow the principal, keeping pace with inflation.

• A pledge may be accepted for the establishment of a named endowment. The term from the time the first pledge payment is recorded and the time that the final pledge payment is received must not exceed five years.

The Plan for Juniata...

Our 2008 strategic plan details our strategy for not only maintaining the distinct character of Juniata but building on our strengths: the flexible and student-centered philosophy that engendered the POE, the value of experiential learning to the academic mission, and the ideal of a community dedicated to collective understanding through individual growth in a challenging environment. Following this plan will allow Juniata to emerge as one of the leading and most distinctive liberal arts colleges in the nation.

The graphic shows dramatically the reason we must now focus on building our endowment. As we do succeed in our effort, Juniata is better able to ensure affordability and to strengthen the character of the college.

Endowment is now a critical focus of our efforts. We are surging toward a major turning point in the institution, one wherein our endowment will be the financial means for strengthening the character of this college.